United States Senate elections, 1970

United States Senate elections, 1970

November 3, 1970
33 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate, plus 2 mid-term vacancies 51 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Mike Mansfield Hugh Scott Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 3, 1961 September 24, 1969 Leader's seat Montana Pennsylvania Seats before 57 43 Seats after 53 45 Seat change 4 2 Popular vote 25,402,791 19,326,064 Percentage 52.4% 39.9% Swing 3.1% 6.6% Seats up 24 8 Races won 20 10   Third party Fourth party   Party Conservative (N.Y.) Independent Seats before 0 0 Seats after 1 1 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 2,183,572 506,237 Percentage 4.5% 0.1% Seats up 0 0 Races won 1 1
Results, with special elections      Democratic gain      Democratic hold      Republican gain      Republican hold      Conservative gain      Independent gain
Majority Leader before election Mike Mansfield Democratic Elected Majority Leader Mike Mansfield Democratic

The United States Senate elections, 1970 was an election for the United States Senate, taking place in the middle of Richard Nixon's first term as President. The Democrats lost a net of three seats, while the Republicans and the Conservative Party of New York picked up one net seat each, and former Democrat Harry F. Byrd Jr. was re-elected as an independent.

This was the most recent election in which a third party won a seat in the Senate until 2006.

These were the last elections (at least through 2016) where a member of a political party other than the Democrats or Republicans had won one or more seats in the chamber (not including Independents, members of no political party). This was also the last midterm election where a sitting President's party simultaneously experienced net gains in the Senate and net losses in the House.

Results summary

Parties		Total Seats			Popular Vote
		1968	1970	+/-	Vote	%
	Democratic	57	54	4	25,402,791	52.40%
	Republican	43	44	2	19,326,064	39.87%
	Conservative	0	1	1	2,183,572	4.50%
	Others	0	1	1	1,566,033	3.23%
Total		100	100		48,478,460	100.0%

Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

Getting out the vote

President Nixon said that rather than violent protests, the best way for the American public to get their opinion heard was by voting:

The most powerful four letter word is a clean word, it’s the most powerful four letter word in the history of men, it's called vote. V-O-T-E. My friends, I say that the answer to those that engage in disruption, to those that shout their filthy slogans, to those that try to shout down speakers, it's not to answer in kind, but go to the polls in election day, and in the quiet of that ballot box, stand up and be counted, the great silent majority of America.

— Richard Nixon, "1970 Election: 1970 Year in Review". UPI.com.

Retirements

Incumbents who lost their seats

Other changes

Change in Senate composition

Race summary

Alaska (Special)

Alaska special election

November 3, 1970

Nominee Ted Stevens Wendell P. Kay Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 47,908 32,456 Percentage 59.61% 40.39%

U.S. Senator before election Ted Stevens Republican Elected U.S. Senator Ted Stevens Republican

Republican Ted Stevens was appointeed December 24, 1968 to finish the term of Democrat Bob Bartlett, who had died in office. The open primary was held August 25, 1970, in which Stevens received 40,411 votes (55.91%), Key received 29,459 votes (23.94%), State Senator Joe Josephson received 12,730 votes (18.22%) and Fritz Singer (R) received 1,349 votes (1.93%).^[2][3] In the November 3, 1970 special election to finish the term, he ran against the Democratic Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives Wendell P. Kay. Stevens easily won with almost 60% of the vote.^[4]

Arizona

Arizona election

Nominee Paul Fannin Sam Grossman Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 228,284 179,512 Percentage 55.98% 44.02%

Results map.      Counties won by Fannin      Counties won by Grossman

U.S. Senator before election Paul Fannin Republican Elected U.S. Senator Paul Fannin Republican

Incumbent Republican Paul Fannin decided to run for re-election to a second term, running unopposed in the Republican primary. Fannin defeated Democratic businessman Sam Grossman in the general election.

California

Senator John Tunney

Connecticut

Connecticut election

Nominee Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Joseph Duffey Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 454,721 368,111 Percentage 41.74% 33.79%   Nominee Thomas J. Dodd Party Independent Popular vote 266,497 Percentage 24.46%

County results

U.S. Senator before election Thomas J. Dodd Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Republican

Republican Lowell P. Weicker Jr. defeated Democrat Joseph Duffey and incumbent Thomas J. Dodd who ran this time as an independent. Dodd entered the race at the last minute and split the Democratic vote, allowing Weicker to win with only 42% of the vote.

Delaware

Florida

Florida election

Nominee Lawton Chiles Bill Cramer Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 902,438 772,817 Percentage 53.9% 46.1%

U.S. Senator before election Spessard Holland Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles Democratic

Incumbent Democrat Spessard Holland retired instead of seeking a fifth term. During the Democratic primary, former Governor C. Farris Bryant and State Senator Lawton Chiles advanced to a run-off, having received more votes than Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Frederick H. Schultz, attorney Alcee Hastings, and State Representative Joel T. Daves, III. Chiles soundly defeated Bryant in the run-off election, scoring a major upset due to his comparatively small name recognition prior to the election. To acquire name recognition and media coverage, Chiles walked about 1,003 miles (1,614 km) across the state of Florida and was given the nickname "Walkin' Lawton".

The Republican primary exposed an in-party feud between Governor Claude R. Kirk Jr. and U.S. Representative William C. Cramer. In the election, Cramer handily defeated G. Harrold Carswell and body shop owner George Balmer; the former was a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge favored by Kirk and had been rejected as a Supreme Court of the United States nominee a few months prior to the primary. Chiles won the election by a relatively small margin of 7.8%, receiving 902,438 votes against Cramer's 772,817 votes.

Incumbent Spessard Holland, who served in the Senate since 1946, decided to retire rather than seek a fifth term.^[8] Although the Democratic Party had dominated state elections since the Reconstruction Era, Claude R. Kirk Jr. and Edward Gurney, both Republicans, were elected Senator and Governor in 1966 and 1968, respectively.^[9]

Hawaii

Illinois (Special)

Indiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Massachusetts election

Nominee Ted Kennedy Josiah Spaulding Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 1,202,856 715,978 Percentage 62.2% 37.0%

Results by town. Red indicates towns won by Spaulding. Blue indicates towns won by Kennedy.

U.S. Senator before election Ted Kennedy Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy Democratic

Incumbent Democrat Ted Kennedy defeated his challengers. This was Kennedy's first election run since the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident. Kennedy won 62.2%, down from 74.3% that he won in the previous election in 1964 and indicates that Chappaquiddick did affect the election.

The Republican nominee was Josiah Spaulding, a businessman and Republican leader in Massachusetts. He led a group of delegates at the 1968 Republican National Convention who unsuccessfully sought to nominate Nelson A. Rockefeller over Richard Nixon.^[12]

Other candidates were Lawrence Gilfedder (Socialist Labor) and Mark R. Shaw (Prohibition), a former Prohibition Party candidate for U.S. Senator from Massachusetts in 1946, 1952, 1958, 1969, 1962, and 1966. He was the party's candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 1948 and 1956. In 1964, he was the Prohibition Party's candidate for vice-president of the United States.^[13]

Massachusetts results by county

Michigan

Minnesota

Minnesota election

Nominee Hubert H. Humphrey Clark MacGregor Party DFL Republican Popular vote 788,256 568,025 Percentage 57.75% 41.62%

U.S. Senator before election Eugene J. McCarthy DFL Elected U.S. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey DFL

Incumbent Democrat Eugene McCarthy retired instead of seeking a third term. Former Democratic U.S. Senator, Vice President and 1968 presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey defeated Republican U.S. Representative Clark MacGregor.

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Montana election

Nominee Mike Mansfield Harold E. Wallace Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 150,060 97,809 Percentage 60.54% 39.46%

U.S. Senator before election Mike Mansfield Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Mike Mansfield Democratic

Democratic incumbent Mike Mansfield, the Senate Majority Leader who was first elected to the Senate in 1952, and was re-elected in 1958 and 1964, ran for re-election. Mansfield won the primary against several opponents, and advanced to the general election, where he was opposed by Harold E. Wallace, a sporting goods salesman and the Republican nominee. While his margin of victory decreased slightly from 1964, Mansfield still managed to defeat Wallace overwhelmingly, winning his fourth and (what would turn out to be his) final term in the Senate.

Nebraska

Nevada

Nevada election

Nominee Howard Cannon William Raggio Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 85,187 60,838 Percentage 57.7% 41.2%

U.S. Senator before election Howard Cannon Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Howard Cannon Democratic

Democrat Howard Cannon, the incumbent since 1959, won re-election to a third term over William Raggio, the Washoe County District Attorney.

In the Senate, Cannon was known as a moderate in the Democratic Party. He served as chairman of several committees, including the rules committee and the inaugural arrangements committee. Cannon was nearly defeated for re-election in 1964 by Republican Lieutenant Governor Paul Laxalt in one of the closest election in history. However, he became more popular over the next few years and defeated D.A. William Raggio, whose 1970 senate campaign began his long political career. Raggio ran for the Nevada Senate in 1972 and won. He then served there for decades to come.

New Jersey

Senator Harrison A. Williams (D-New Jersey) was re-elected.

New Mexico

New Mexico election

Nominee Joseph Montoya Anderson Carter Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 151,486 135,004 Percentage 52.3% 46.6%

County results

U.S. Senator before election Joseph Montoya Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Joseph Montoya Democratic

Incumbent Democrat Joseph Montoya successfully ran for re-election to a second term, defeating Republican Anderson Carter.

New York

New York election

Nominee James Buckley Richard Ottinger Party Conservative (N.Y.) Democratic Popular vote 2,288,190 2,171,232 Percentage 38.95% 36.96%   Nominee Charles Goodell Party Republican Popular vote 1,404,472 Percentage 23.91%

County results

U.S. Senator before election Charles Goodell Republican Elected U.S. Senator James Buckley Conservative (N.Y.)

Incumbent Republican Charles Goodell, who was recently appointed to the seat by Governor Nelson Rockefeller after Senator Bobby Kennedy (D) was assassinated, ran for a full term, but was defeated by the Conservative Party of New York nominee James Buckley. Other candidates included: Richard Ottinger, U.S. Congressman (1965–1971, 1975–1985), Kevin P. McGovern, Paul O'Dwyer, Former New York City Council Member from Manhattan, Ted Sorensen, Former Advisor and Speechwriter to President John F. Kennedy, Richard D. McCarthy, U.S. Congressman (1965-1971).

North Dakota

Senator Quentin N. Burdick

Incumbent Democratic-NPL Party Senator Quentin N. Burdick was re-elected to his third term, defeating Republican candidate Thomas S. Kleppe, who later became the United States Secretary of the Interior.^[20]

Only Burdick filed as a Dem-NPLer, and the endorsed Republican candidate was Thomas S. Kleppe, who was finishing his second and final term as a Representative for North Dakota's second congressional district. Burdick and Kleppe won the primary elections for their respective parties.

One independent candidate, Russell Kleppe, also filed before the deadline.

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania election

Nominee Hugh Scott William Sesler Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,874,106 1,653,774 Percentage 51.4% 45.4%

County results

U.S. Senator before election Hugh Scott Republican Elected U.S. Senator Hugh Scott Republican

Incumbent Republican Hugh Scott won re-election, defeating Democratic nominee State Senator William Sesler.

Rhode Island

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Virginia election

Nominee Harry F. Byrd Jr. George Rawlings Party Independent Democratic Popular vote 506,237 294,582 Percentage 53.5% 31.2%   Nominee Ray L. Garland Party Republican Popular vote 144,765 Percentage 15.3%

U.S. Senate election results map. Gray denotes counties/districts won by Byrd. Blue denotes those won by Rawlings. Red denotes those won by Garland.

U.S. Senator before election Harry F. Byrd Jr. Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Jr. Independent

Incumbent Harry F. Byrd Jr. was re-elected to his first full term after winning a race 4 years earlier to finish the remainder of his father's term. He beat George C. Rawlings, Jr. (D), a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and Ray L. Garland (R), a member of Virginia House of Delegates.

Washington

Senator Henry Jackson (D)

West Virginia

Senator Robert Byrd (D)

Wisconsin

Senator William Proxmire (D)

See also

• United States elections, 1970
  • United States gubernatorial elections, 1970
  • United States House of Representatives elections, 1970
• 91st United States Congress
• 92nd United States Congress

References